


Still Waters Run Deep

by Valentine20xx



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Multi, Robot Kink
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 12:14:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20564156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valentine20xx/pseuds/Valentine20xx
Summary: No-one knows what happened to the land of Whirlpools. A peaceful place known for researching ancient technology, it was rendered inhospitable by an accident that caused lethal poison to settle over the entire country. Blueprints and information from Whirlpool's researchers is highly prized by the Elemental Nations after this incident...This research will bring together two people, and what they rediscover will change the future of many of the people of Konohagakure...





	Still Waters Run Deep

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto/Shonen Jump, and is used without permission.
> 
> In this story, The current Elemental Nations are a far future version of humanity, recovering from the second major cycle in a group of forced extinction level events orchestrated by the Otsutsuki clan, using the power of, in this case, Datara, the previous two being how modern day Earth was effectively made extinct as well as the well-known incident where Kaguya almost wiped everyone out due to their penchant for wars.  
As a note, _The Dark Ages_ refers to present day civilisation, approached from the angle of the Elemental Nations.
> 
> Content Warning: This contains some robot conversion scenes. Robot Fetishism is a kink with a lot of risk of lasting injury and/or death if you go too far. You cannot currently turn yourself into a robot, so please, please, please don’t try any of this at home. I will not be responsible for anything that happens from ignorance of this warning.

_Uzushio was the foremost research and science community within the Elemental Nations, and considered experts in the Dark Ages. Their military arm operated under an ancient set of rules known as ‘bushido’ for their ninja and kunoichi, with the uppermost ranks being called ‘Samurai’. Due to their universally noble and selfless nature, they were found worthy by the Sage of Six Paths to be the caretakers for the Kyuubi, the ninth of the tailed beasts created in aborting the second great cataclysm.  
_ _What happened to Uzushio is relatively unknown, outside of a massive explosion occuring in the vicinity of Uzushiogakure, those people who didn’t evacuate shortly before the explosion dying for reasons unknown. The lands where it had been were now nothing more than deserted buildings gone to ruin and wastelands, which only the most insane would go into. But the technology they researched was so highly prized, the rewards greatly outweigh the risks, so people, to this day, still enter the blighted lands..._

Ever since Uzushiogakure had been rocked by the explosion, The lands known as Uzu became nicknamed the Wastelands. Scavenger teams explored them to recover some of the Dark Ages technology so it could be decontaminated and reproduced in the enormous factories of the Land Of Iron. Due to these efforts, technology that the people of the Elemental Nations relied on for mass-producing both civil and military supplies was only temporarily out of action, as a priority was put on these key blueprints.  
Tenten had grown up with stories of these scavengers, as well as stories of how a scavenger could earn themselves tens of thousands of ryo, enough to be set for life, just from finding an intact set of blueprints and their attached notations, which could be delivered, at great expense, to those who would study them and recreate what had been lost. Tenten fancied herself as the latter more than the former, having been disallowed from the scavenger career by contracting ‘Scavenger’s Rot’, a lethal disease that came from exposure to the poisonous landscape of the Wastelands.  
Right now, she was working on the greatest piece in the collection of items which had been part of her haul when she’d had the fateful trip, a massive multi-barrelled projectile weapon, which the few bits of paperwork she’d recovered as well called the inaccurate name of ‘mini-gun’, something which confused Tenten no end.  
“What kind of mini-gun is two thirds my height and half my weight?” She grumbled, setting up the rig she’d made to use it before she tipped some of the tablets she’d got from the hospital into her hand, having got them as they were removing the contaminants from the components of the weapon, and swallowed them with a cup of water. Like she could expect to find someone with a set of undamaged blueprints from Uzushiogakure’s archives. They were in family libraries, and she didn’t know of anyone from the central city...

In another part of Konoha, a mousy haired girl sighed as she put her shopping down, shortly before making a handsign, transforming quickly from the mostly nondescript girl into a familiar blond haired boy, who sighed before sealing the shopping into a scroll and making his way to his apartment, with no sign he’d been out for anything other than a stroll. When he did otherwise, invariably, he’d get mistaken for a thief, due to the ‘unfortunate’ mix-up when tagging the shopping, which meant he had someone else’s tags on his bags.  
“One day, I’ll be able to get my shopping done properly without having to do that...” Naruto mused, thankful he’d at least found a way to get his money’s worth shopping. He’d found his form of ‘Henge’ originally when he’d been trying to work it out and had got some of the handsigns wrong. He didn’t know why, but it even fooled ANBU and wasn’t subject to the same limitations the books and teachers said ‘Henge’ had.  
“Admittedly, most of them are full of shit...” Naruto growled, going over to where he had been carefully trying to study a broken high-tech gaming device, getting out his work goggles and carefully adjusting the eyepieces until he could see the tiny circuits. At least none of the chips were warped like last time. The voltage indicator showed it should be working, but it just wouldn’t turn on, and he’d already dealt with the ‘Idiot’s Malfunctions’.  
The battery was good and the power switch did make it draw power, and he'd even plugged it into the scavenged, in more ways than one, screen he used for testing those which supported such.  
“Still not managed to figure it out anyway...” Naruto sighed, “Old man… ‘Can you please get this working? It shouldn’t be too hard...’… Just because I’m one of the few people who has an Uzu lineage that isn’t on the Death Squads...”  
He dropped it into the ‘Maybe, Probably Never’ bin of various broken bits of High Technology that he either didn’t have the schematics for or the parts needed weren’t available to him. He usually, a few weeks after they ended up in that bin, just took them apart and saw what still worked of the components.  
Nothing he got had any Geigers, whatever that meant. All he knew was that these ‘Geigers’ and Scavenger’s Rot worked hand in hand. He studied the safe in one corner of the room, used to pay for blueprints he kept.  
“I’m not getting myself almost killed because most of the good information is still in Uzushiogakure… Whatever Geigers are, there’s a helluva lot in the main city...” He muttered, remembering the report from one of the Death Squad members who managed to get into the city limits. The Death Squad was an impolite term for the people who went into Uzu in those bulky suits with the just as bulky ‘Geiger Counters’ that kept them from going into somewhere that was contaminated by whatever a geiger was.  
All Naruto knew was that they were lethal in large amounts, and the guy who did the report on the state of Uzu’s capital city had been dead a couple of days later. Restoring his henge, this time to a semi-random kunoichi, in that most of the faces he used were of kunoichi who had ‘disappeared’ in ‘mysterious circumstances’.  
When he'd pressed for information on them, The Hokage had eventually relented and stated that some off-the-record assignments, that only kunoichi could do, had resulted in their capture, and they’d taken suicide pills rather than reveal who sent them out. The only concession to keeping the charade up had been the fact none of these henges used a forehead protector, because they created investigations, and usually nullified that face for anything up to a year while Naruto ensured there was nothing to find.  
Heading towards one of the training grounds, Naruto got rid of ‘her’ frustration and anger at the world by burning off chakra with drills, hoping they’d translate into a much better team assignment in the future, if he didn’t end up spending all his time doing the work a proper Technician could do. Yes, it earned more, but he wasn't planning on ending up attached to a Death Squad for his expertise...

Tenten entered the same training ground a short time later, clapping at the more than acceptable display of skill she was seeing, the kunoichi tensing as she heard it, before frowning at the fact one of her throwing stars had bent. She was clearly a Konoha nin, the styles were pretty much like fingerprints. No two places were exactly alike, even with the basic jutsu.  
However, she was sure she knew all the trainees, and this one didn’t have a metal plate anywhere in her outfit. Something didn’t ring right for her, so she planned a quick sanity check.  
“Hello… Who are you?” Tenten asked, “I’m sure that I know all of the kunoichi trainees, and you use the Konoha standard styles...”  
“OK, Let’s try you then… Brunette, second year in the academy, dresses like an old world miko, has been chewed out by the jonin due to terrible problems with being a pacifist,” The girl began with a smirk. Tenten cursed. The girl was counter-challenging her.  
“Satomi Kimiko...” Tenten replied, “Last I knew, she was petitioning for assignment to the Land Of Demons where they still use priestesses...”  
“OK, Let’s try someone harder… Blond-haired girl, has failed twice to graduate, wears her hair in long ponytails, and is currently being scouted by the Akamichi for marrying into their clan...” The girl tried, doing something behind her back.  
“Ooh, that is a hard one, I think it’s Kino Tsume,” Tenten offered, Naruto nodding, “Remember her from that disaster of an eating contest the Akamichi organized...”  
“Right, last one… Brunette, first year in the academy, top of the class in Bukijutsu and Fuinjutsu, but has her seduction and infiltration tutors tearing their hair out, the first since she has clothes which seem to be perpetually grease-stained, and is taking medication for Scavenger’s Rot,” The girl finished, Tenten looking and noticing two things. First, that described specifically her, especially the last two, and that the ‘kunoichi’ had turned into a very familiar young man slightly younger than her.  
“So, What’s with the grease stains and the fact you need to take pills for radiation exposure, Ten-ko?” Naruto asked, causing her to blush at the cute nickname he’d given her.  
“I used to go out with the salvage teams who go into Uzu every couple of weeks, until I developed the Rot from raiding a weapons cache without noticing the geiger level,” Tenten stated, worrying a hole into the ground with the toe of her sandals, “I have been attempting to reverse engineer some of it. So, Why do you know so much about the kunoichi, especially stuff that’s kept usually to the classrooms?”  
“I’m currently attending the Academy under a different name, but I can’t tell you who, since it’s kept secret from practically everyone… However, I will give you this boon...” Naruto stated, before, looking around, he stated, “Drop by Sarutobi’s office in the academy building, and tell him this codephrase… The Quick Red Fox Jumped Over The Yellow Frog… It’s a ridiculous code phrase if you ask me… If he asks who told it you, just give my name...”

Tenten let Naruto leave, not wanting to know what student Naruto was attending the academy as. She was more interested in one thing. Naruto’s last name. She’d seen it on the records, but hadn’t been able to contact him. The fact he’d possibly intentionally beeing flirting with her didn’t dissuade her. That's what brought her to be stood in Sarutobi's office, stating the nonsense version of one of the oldest methods of learning Romanji characters she knew of. She was surprised when he did a handsign, frowning as five loud pops came from parts of his office.  
“I was hoping Naruto was wrong about that...” Sarutobi stated, looking to a corner of the room, for it to ripple as the illusion was broken, the ANBU member that was revealed going to meet Torture and Interrogation. “Within the hour, anyone who heads to a medic with ear problems will be taken for investigation, Anyway, I assume you are here about what Naruto's last name is about… I need you to accept an S-Rank mission, starting as soon as you leave this room. You will be cycled out of the Academy, citing a paperwork error that no-one noticed...”  
“What kind of mission would require absolute secrecy and me to give up my dream?” Tenten asked, for Sarutobi to take out a thick folder, flicking through the items, before sliding two of the items inside towards her. They were blueprints that looked similar to a couple of the items she'd been working on.  
“You are about to be Konoha’s first permanent on-site High Technology Specialist, Naruto can’t do it since he’s likely to end up in the ninja program. You were close to ending up cycled out when you developed Scavenger’s Rot,” Sarutobi began, Tenten nodding, “Naruto will be gifted all of the folder, and you are expected to work with him in two ways. Firstly, help him with the reverse engineering he's working on during his free time, and secondly, You will be expected to take over a portion of a recently sold apartment building as your new workshop. There is only one other tenant, who will pay you rent if you wish… I think you can work out the rest...”  
Tenten nodded, accepting the commission, knowing that she’d get paid even more than if she’d stayed as a kunoichi. That's why High Technology Specialist was such a lucrative job. Until the end of the cause of Scavenger’s Rot, people like her would be handling millions of ryo. She glanced through the blueprints herself, smiling. While it wasn’t the exact same model, one of Naruto’s blueprints was for something that looked very much like the massive item she had in her home. She would enjoy that evening, finally having a proper blueprint to work off...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just from reading between the lines, I think you can tell why the so-called Scavenger's Rot is lethal to anyone who goes into Uzushiogakure, as well as why the entire country is inhospitable. There are very few people left who have even a passing knowledge of what causes it, and most of those are challenged with rendering recovered items safe.
> 
> And the Idiot's Malfunctions refer to the tech support first set of questions, "Have You Plugged It In? Have You Turned On The Power?"  
Anyone who answers 'No', Please, stay away from technology.


End file.
